NYC profe visits East Los, eats tacos, takes photos, buys Doyers shirt

From #PueblaYork to #OaxaCalifornia

I live in NYC, and I have to admit, it had been a long time since I spent time in L.A., close to a decade.

In 2008, I visited my tía abuela who lived in Orange County. She drove me up to L.A. to see Olvera Street and a quick drive through Boyle Heights. It’s been a decade since then, and this summer I had a few days and a rental car, so I saw some things. I had some taco literacy work to do, but more than that, I wanted to learn more about the gente, to visit some places that have been mythologized for me, a Chicano from rural Arizona.

Califas, as I heard y’all refer to yourselves, I had come to get to know you better.

Mas…NYC profe visits East Los, eats tacos, takes photos, buys Doyers shirt

WATCH: WB Merrie Melodies Cartoon from 1956: ‘Two Crows from Tacos’


Two Mexican singing crows are starving and try to catch a grasshopper in this 1956 animated short from Merrie Melodies/Warner Bros. What could possibly go wrong? It’s like a toon starring our hero Speedy Gonzales, Mexico’s fastest mouse, except no Speedy. Substitute crows for gatos and a grasshopper for Speedy and you get the idea.

One IMDB reviewer had a plot of praise for this toon:

Mas…WATCH: WB Merrie Melodies Cartoon from 1956: ‘Two Crows from Tacos’

Nixtamalization means fresh tortillas at South Philly Barbacoa (video)

When you bite into a taco, you are tasting the results of an ancient chemical process called nixtamalization. It’s a technique that hasn’t changed much since 1500 BCE, and along the way it helped the Aztecs rise to power and made tortillas softer, tastier, and much more nutritious. Today, Benjamin Miller and Christina Martinez are the only chefs in Philadelphia making their tortillas from scratch, which means they practice the ancient art of nixtamalization.

Mas…Nixtamalization means fresh tortillas at South Philly Barbacoa (video)

Tacos are ‘The Cuisine of the Rio Grande Valley’ (video)


Newbie vlogger Jose Reyes visits three taquerias in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley and shares his impressions. Because we are committed to accurate portrayals of whatever it is we seek to accurately portray, we asked POCHO’s Texas Burro Jefe Beto Mesta aka Eres Nerd if this video was legit. “Yup!” he replied.